UFO Abductions: A Powerful Emotional Experience

UFO Abductions: A Powerful
Emotional Experience

Kerry Andersen

Augustana University College

A paper submitted to Dr. Jayne Gackenbach as part of the course
requirements for Psy 473 (Sleep and Dreams), April, 1997

From: http://www.sawka.com/spiritwatch/andersen.htm

It's a dark windy night
as Max is driving back home from a weekend trip. He's driven for
hours and now he's turned onto a small back road which is a short
cut to his place out in the country. The wind gusts rhythmically
and the trees sway from side to side. Max's eyes are feeling heavy
and objects are beginning to blur. Max fights the intense need
to sleep by opening his truck windows and cranking up the radio.
All of sudden, Max sees a blinding white light appear in the sky,
while he simultaneously hits the ditch. Max awakens the next day
in his truck. He recalls being on an examining table and having
a bright light shining in his eyes. He remembers grey little creatures
looking at him out of their big black eyes. Max also remembers
feeling helpless as he tried to move but was unable to. Max is
shaking as he starts his truck and speeds off to his home. Fox
Mulder (from the X-Files) would cry out that "This is an alien
abduction!" while Dana Scully would argue "Look at the scientific
evidence Fox, there are alternate explanations for his experience!" Is
this a possible alien abduction experience or could Max have internally
generated the imagery that he claimed to experience? This essay
will explore possible explanations for UFO abduction experiences.
I will argue, that the felt sense of an abduction is emotionally
powerful but there is evidence to suggest that the reality may
not be an actual physical abduction.

A UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) is "something seen in the sky
(or on land, or in water, but thought capable of flight) which
the witness could not identify and thought sufficiently strange
to report to either an official or unofficial investigating body" (McGrew,
1994, pg.3). An IFO is an Identified Flying Object and according
to McGrew, 90% of all reported UFO's can be explained as "either
natural phenomena or misidentification of normal manmade devices" (pg.3).
Alien is defined as not residing in the country of one's citizenship
or different in nature. Thus, an alien can be seen as a foreigner;
someone or something that is not in their natural environment.

Although there is a tremendous amount of speculation about other
life forms existing elsewhere in the universe, there is little
evidence. The only substantial evidence available are from abductee
reports. Later this essay will discuss why this alone is not sufficient
evidence to conclude that UFO's, or aliens for that matter, exist.

The debate, however, is far from over. The Drake Equation for
example, is often used in support of alien existence in the universe.
The Drake Equation "attempts to estimate the number of civilizations
in the universe by using imprecise variables" (McGrew, 1994, pg.5).
But this is not very useful considering that earth is the only
planet where there is solid evidence of civilization. Other more
complex calculations have increased the reliability of such techniques
but nonetheless, have been fruitless in the attempt to support
the conclusion that there is other life existing in the universe.
The best that these techniques have done is to prove that there
are "molecules believed to be essential to the formation of life...in
interstellar space" (pg.6).

There is however, some evidence to support alien abductions. First,
most accounts of abductions are very similar to one another. The
typical alien for example, is a short (1.0 m to 1.25 m in height)
grey creature with large black oval-shaped eyes (McGrew, 1994,
pg.6). There is even the possibility of material evidence. "There
are abundant material traces, even excepting those confiscated
by the military" (pg.7). Material traces consist of grass that
is burnt in places where the UFO's have allegedly landed, or UFO's
captured on film or in photos (refer to Appendix A), and finally
UFO's shown on radar tapes. There is also bodily traces on abductees
which "include scoop-marks in the flesh, incisions, burns, apparent
radiation exposure, bruises, inflammation, etc" (pg.7).

I argue that alternate explanations for each above piece of evidence
is possible. Using any or all of this evidence is not sufficient
to conclude that aliens exist because it is too subjective. This
is true by modern scientific standards, however there are those
that argue that trying to study these experiences using only science
is limited (Ring, 1992). But nonetheless, science is also a useful
approach. For example, I could have a narcoleptic attack while
driving and awaken with bruises and burns on my skin. I may even
recall being abducted, but I could easily have confused a nightmare
with reality, which is not uncommon for narcoleptic sufferers.
This can scientifically explain an abduction experience as false.

This is not to take away from the felt sense of the experience
of the abductees. I have no doubt that many of those who claim
that they were abducted believe that they were and experienced
it at a felt sense level. But since UFO's have little if any supporting
concrete evidence, I feel that it is important to realize that
there are alternate explanations for these experiences. It is possible
that these are internally generated images that feel completely
real. This essay will address this possibility later.

There are many different theories regarding the origins of UFO's.
These include that "UFO's are some form of advanced technology;...
that UFO's might be time travelers; that UFO's might be some form
of new natural phenomenon; and the UFO's might be some form of
psychic phenomenon" (McGrew, 1994, pg.7). Again, there is no firm
evidence to confirm or disprove any of these theories. One major
problem with studying alien abductions is that in many cases it
is not falsifiable. If the UFO is spotted and then talked about
after the fact, there is little evidence to disprove or prove the
claim.

Characteristic experiences reported by professed abductees are
the loss of memory and the loss of time. Abductees frequently recall
the experience from their memory or recall their abductions with
the help of hypnosis. The use of hypnosis is controversial since
individuals are extremely suggestible and the realizations that
they can come to while under are not always accurate. Hypnosis
can direct a person unknowingly to believe that they have been
abducted. Furthermore, skeptics argue that all the media attention
regarding abductions can persuade people having nightmares or people
believing that they have lost time to draw on this while under
hypnosis. The result is that people are being put through unnecessary
trauma. Although the problems associated with hypnosis can not
account for all the actual claims of abduction, it has, in the
past, influenced people to recall things (such as an abduction)
which are completely false.

It is true that "nightmares are often caused by the sleeping disorder
narcolepsy, and [that] "missing time" is not an uncommon experience
and is caused when the mind is preoccupied by other matters" (pg.6).
In fact, nightmares can have a variety of different causes, including
medication, drugs, illness, and serious trauma of any type. Furthermore,
it is not uncommon for adults who have no sleeping disorders (and
is quite common for children) to have nightmares. Nightmares commonly
occur for people experiencing different types of sleep disorders
(including narcolepsy).

Narcolepsy is a genetic sleep disorder in which the person has
REM sleep attacks during the daytime. The victim of this sleep
disorder falls asleep (during a REM sleep attack) no matter where
or what they are doing. Since it is REM sleep, the sufferer collapses
because he or she is paralyzed. Intense emotions provoke these
attacks. "A side effect of this attack are strong nightmares and
confusion between what is real and what is not" (Gackenbach, pg.5,
1995). Thus, narcolepsy can help to explain the missing time, since
victims suffer attacks at random times for varying lengths of time.
It can also explain the recall of an abduction experience as being
a nightmare since nightmares and reality are often confused. It
is true that sleeping disorders such as narcolepsy can not account
for all the abduction experiences that people have claimed occurred,
but I believe that it is a reasonable explanation for some of the
cases.

Sleep paralysis, also known as the old hags myth, is a phenomena
which happens primarily at night in ones bedroom. This is a REM
intrusion disorder. Basically what happens is that the high brain
functions wake up while the brain stem is still asleep, thus the
individual is paralyzed. The individual lies in bed frightened
and unable to move, while usually attempting to scream (but can
not). People often recall a threatening being in the room, such
as an alien. When they finally regain the ability to move "they
are left with the conviction that they were awake, and in physiological
and psychological terms they're correct this is a waking experience" (Hufford,
1992, pg.6). However, people can draw from this experience to claim
that they have been abducted, which is incorrect. Many UFO abduction
experiences include the person being unable to move. This can be
in some cases connected to sleep paralysis. "A large survey aimed
at what the investigator can say to be features associated with
abduction... finds 18 percent of the general population... have
awakened at least once during the night in the presence of a strange
visitor" (Hufford, 1992, pg.2).

Sleep paralysis rarely goes on for minutes (like up to ten or
fifteen minutes), but when it does it "frequently terminates in
what the subject describes as an unpleasant involuntary out of
body experience" (Hufford, 1992, pg.6). This is similar to abduction
experiences in which the abductee describes being "taken out through
the wall of their room" (pg.6). Although the abductee would argue
that this is a physical experience, it is possible that it is a
mentally generated experience.

There are some commonalties between alien abduction experiences
and near death experiences. "Ring and Rosing (1990, cited in Gackenbach,
1993) found a very similar pattern of childhood neglect in both
NDE [(near death experience)] and UFOE [(unidentified flying object
abduction experiences)]" (Gackenbach, 1993, pg.16). Also, Ring
and Rosing (1990, cited in Gackenbach, 1993) "surveyed 264 people
of four types: UFO encounter group, interest in but no UFO experience,
NDE [encounter] group, and interested in NDE but no experience" (pg.17).
They found a statistically significant difference for the NDE and
UFO experiencing groups; a superiority was found "in childhood
psychic experiences and childhood sensitivity to nonordinary realities" (pg.17).
Ring and Rosing (1990, cited in Gackenbach, 1993) also found that
these two groups shown significantly more childhood abuse, trauma,
and illness than did the NDE nonexperiencers and the UFO nonexperiencers.

Gackenbach (1993) contends that most out of body experiences (OBE's),
NDE's and UFOE's "occur in a states of either sensory underload
(at or near sleep), or overload (physical or emotional stress)" (pg.16).
For example, Max was driving on a small back road with no other
traffic at night. Since the environment had a low sensory load
it could have easily produced a hypnagogic state, similar to being
in a trance (Gackenbach, 1993). At sensory overload or sensory
underload, "it is easier to reconstruct the mental model of lived
world" (pg.16). Thus, Max falsely attributed his experience to
being abducted by aliens. This is similar to nonlucid dreams when
one falsely attributes that they are awake when they are indeed
sound asleep. Just as the state of nonlucid dreaming feels completely
real, so too do the experiences of those who claim to have been
abducted. These people experience a felt sense of reality, unlike
the rarer experience of lucidity when the dreamer is aware and
correctly attributes "the true nature of his or her state" (pg.17).
Although the felt sense level of an UFOE is one of reality (believing
that they are awake), it is possible that this attribution of reality
is incorrect.

UFOE's are very powerful and often transforming experiences. Ring
(1992), for example, found that abductees often report changes
in consciousness. "There seemed to be physiological changes, even
neurological changes - all seeming to be indicative of a development
of a higher consciousness" (Ring, 1992, pg.1). It is a transpersonal
experience that "combines both ... objective and subjective realities
in one hybrid kind of reality" (Rojcewicz, 1992, pg.2). There are
some scientific explanations which I feel are useful when attempting
to understand UFOE's, for example, the possibility of narcoleptic
attacks and sleep paralysis. However, it is clear that the felt
sense reality of these experiences for the abductees means more
to them than just these scientific definitions since these experiences
are often transforming.